Pascal Lamy remains optismistic about the future of trade

Pascal Lamy, who was director-general of the World Trade Organization for two terms from 2005 to 2013, talked to 25 members of the AAPA at a breakfast meeting at Chez Françoise in late May. The meeting came just as US President Donald Trump was about to introduce tariffs on his European allies for aluminum and steel and as the US threatened sanctions on European firms doing business in Iran. In this ever turbulent period, and despite a fractious G7 meeting in Canada that followed, Mr. Lamy said that he remained optimistic that Trump wouldn’t upend the international order on trade – at least not yet – because it simply doesn’t make economic sense from any party involved.